Depression provokes strokes

Depression provokes strokes

22/09/2011

Depression can increase the risk of strokes. This applies in particular if the mental illness is recognized too late and not treated. The magnitude of the increased risk, according to scientists from Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, is said to be similar to tobacco smoking.

Many people do not know about their condition and postulate mood swings, prolonged sadness or social neglect on external circumstances or functional disorders. It has long been known that there is a risk context between depression, hypertension, diabetes and heart attacks. The psyche therefore has a decisive influence on the physical constitution of man. What is new is that untreated and long-lasting depression not only reduces the quality of life, but also significantly increases the risks of (stroke). Reported researchers Harvard School of Public Health. If depressive episodes or manifested depression are treated in time, four out of every hundred strokes could be prevented according to the study results. According to this, depression could be just as important a factor in the development of strokes as the regular consumption of cigarettes.

During the study phase, the research team evaluated 28 cohort studies, which are a special form of panel analysis (meta-analysis). The data included a total of 320,000 subjects with disease progression for up to 29 years. During the period studied, about 8500 participants suffered a stroke. The result: those who suffered from depression showed a 45% risk for an apoplexy. In addition, the mortality rate increased by 55 percent in an insult if the patient was additionally depressed. Already a study undertaken in 2005 came to similarly worrying results. However, the data could not be backed up at that time because the number of participants was too small for a concrete statement.

Unhealthy lifestyle in depression
The researchers can only speculate on why there is a clear connection. It is obvious that the mentally ill tend to maintain an unhealthy lifestyle and thus increase the rate of illness via self-administered risk substances (fatty food, smoking, alcohol consumption). So it is also explainable why depressive patients have an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. In addition, prescriptions such as antidepressants may favor an increase in body weight. Being overweight is another risk factor for strokes.

In addition, however, biological disease processes are also discussed. According to medical experts, depressions activate the sympathetic nervous system and provoke a platelet dysfunction or an increase in C-reactive protein. These processes could also increase the risk of stroke. At the current state of knowledge, only assumptions can be made here because there is no reliable data.

The extent of the results becomes clear when the disease rate is consulted on the example of Germany. Around four million people in this country suffer from depression, although the number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher. According to estimates by experts, around ten percent of the German population suffer from a depressive phase or a trained depression during their lifetime. By comparison, strokes are the third most common disease in Germany and, according to recent surveys, the third most common cause of death (7.9% of all causes of death). The study results were in the medical journal „Jama“ released. (Sb)

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